CFOs need to exercise their pivotal power to influence organisational strategy and to ensure that they curate and enforce pre-eminent mechanisms for sustainability and encourage active economic participation of all in the ecosystem.
The unprecedented era of rapid globalisation and the changing business landscape has inevitably accelerated the metamorphosis of the CFO function, from the orthodox financial acumen and operational oversight to chief value officers by reason of diligently adapting to volatile, uncertain and complex economic markets. Thus, strategically positioning the role of the CFO in the front ranks of strategic decision-making, curating operational strategy, identifying and mitigating risks and addressing environmental, societal and governance issues.
To this end, the philosophical shift has brought a wave of reform in strategic planning to leverage on the competitive advantage and efficiency of technological advancements driven by digital transformation and automation.
Consequently, the shift has catalysed and enforced the paradigm of service to not only look at financial stewardship, but to improve lived experiences of their customers and the eco system around the business by challenging the infallibility of the finance function and acknowledging its dualistic role in stewardship as that of an agile, ultramodern manager of resources for value creation.
It is therefore the contemporary CFO’s prerogative to exercise their pivotal power to influence organisational strategy and to ensure that they curate and enforce pre-eminent mechanisms for sustainability and more-so to encourage active economic participation of all in the ecosystem.
The former restrained paradigm that dominated the CFO function can be seen to have misrepresented and underestimated the social responsibility, impact and significance of the finance function in the citizenry’s lived experiences and wellbeing.
The globalised business environment presents opportunities for innovation and integration to respond to current and future generational tasks which drive sustainability by capitalising on empowering the previously neglected and through tactically optimising the corporate social investment (CSI) projects to support the socio-economic transformation and progression in marginalised communities. The empowerment of others, building and establishing of SMEs, and CSI projects should improve quality of life, create job opportunities and implore the development and maintenance of quality infrastructure to contest with the regressive effects of neglect of planet and on economic growth and development.
I therefore urge the contemporary CFO to master the art of agility to be proficient in finance and business for value creation, and for lifting and transforming communities around them.
